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Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Tag It Tuesday Link Party for February

Happy Tuesday Everyone!

I have a confession to make. As of 9am my time this morning, I did not have a tag made for today's link party. For some reason, I had the 20th in my mind as the due date. Heck -- that's not even a Tuesday! What was I thinking?!?!?

Needless to say, I have dashed around frantically the past couple of hours coming up with an idea and rapidly making my tag. Our theme this month was Valentine's Day/love/romance/hearts/pink and red, and I challenged you to think outside the box for this one. Since I issued that challenge, I thought it only fair that I accept the challenge myself! This was tough, because I am a pink girl all the way and wanted so badly to pull out hearts and flowers and purdy stuff! Instead, I started flipping through stamp sets, and believe it or not, a monkey caught my eye.

I quickly gessoed one of my tags and dried it with my heat gun. Obviously, I didn't do a good job heating both sides...hence the mangled appearance of my tag! It gets better -- I promise!

I then grabbed my trusty Prang watercolors and set to work dabbing a background of blue, blue green, blue violet and yellow. As I added each color, I then dabbed it with a baby wipe. That's how I got the mottled look. I like it!

Introducing, Mr. Monkey! I took my Versa Magic Chalk Ink in the color gingerbread and stamped the branch and Mr. Monkey onto my tag. For some strange reason, I decided to do a bit of paper piecing with this tag, even though I despise paper piecing! I grabbed some scraps of patterned card stock that were on my work table and stamped and then cut out the leaves, his "muzzle," tummy and big feet. I added a bit of inking to the edges for some shading.

I got his body parts glued down, including popping his feet up for a bit of dimension. It's at this point that I realize I cannot find the leaves I had already cut out and inked. I look and look and look, to no avail. I know as soon as I stamp and cut another one, the original one will appear. Isn't that a Murphy's law or something???

Here's the finished tag. I did some very quick and simple coloring of his body and the branch with colored pencils. I rough cut some jungle-ish hearts from the same paper I cut the leaves from, inked the edges and added them. I had to get some hearts in there somehow!

As you can see, I popped up his feet and the leaves for some dimension. The sentiment banner is also popped up so it cleared the twine I wrapped around the bottom of the tag. I inked the edges of that, as well as the tag itself. I also took the original string that was on the tag, held it down with my distress ink applicator, and pulled it through several times to age it a bit and just reattached it to the tag.

While this is not Valentiney per se, it is a sentiment of love or affection. Who would YOU go out on a limb for???

Okay....it's time for you to link up your February tag. I'm excited to see what you came up with. Be sure to visit each other, make a new friend, and leave a comment! Have fun!

Thanks for looking at my blog. I appreciate all the wonderful comments everyone leaves.
Happy Crafting!

Sheri, CUTEST TAG EVER!!! I love it! Now you've done it! I have to go back to the drawing board because my tag is NOT EVEN outside the box!! LOL I needed a nudge in the other direction and you gave it to me! I will have to search the old brain for another idea! LOL I love it, such cuteness! Blessings! :)